NRA CET: National Recruitment Agency to conduct Common Eligibility Test for recruitment to central govt jobs

NRA CET: National Recruitment Agency to conduct Common Eligibility Test for recruitment to central govt jobs. National Recruitment Agency. The Union Cabinet has decided to set up a National Recruitment Agency (NRA), a multi-agency body, for conducting a Common Eligibility Test (CET) to screen or shortlist candidates for the Group B and C (non-technical) posts.

A Common Eligibility Test (CET) will be conducted online across the country from next year to screen and shortlist candidates for recruitment to select central government jobs. The test will be a major boon for youths seeking government employment

In August 2020, the Union Cabinet approved the formation of a National Recruitment Agency (NRA). The main purpose of establishing this agency is to streamline recruitment process of government jobs by holding a common eligibility test. Billed as a “landmark reform”, the NRA will conduct exams for various group B and group C posts in various government organisations.

“The National Recruitment Agency will prove to be a boon for crores of youngsters. Through the Common Eligibility Test, it will eliminate multiple tests and save precious time as well as resources. This will also be a big boost to transparency,” Modi tweeted.   

The NRA will have representatives of Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Finance/Department of Financial Services, the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) and the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS), according to an official statement.

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 National Recruitment Agency (NRA) which will conduct computer based common eligibility test for central government jobs. It will bring ease of recruitment, selection, job placement and ease of living particularly for certain sections of society which are at a disadvantage on one account or the other.

The test will remain valid for three years during which the candidate can apply for jobs in different sectors depending upon his aptitude and preferences. This will benefit job seeking youth of the country.

Government Jobs 2020: List of Major Recruitments this year

The preliminary exam for all non-gazetted posts, comprising Group B and C (non-technical) posts, will be held in common. Candidates who qualify the preliminary exam will apply to the respective recruitment agency for higher level of examination.

The validity of the test score will be for three years and there will be no bar on the number of attempts subject to the upper age limit.

Why NRA? – At present, candidates seeking government jobs have to appear for separate examinations conducted by multiple recruiting agencies for various posts, for which similar eligibility conditions have been prescribed.

Candidates have to pay fee to multiple recruiting agencies and also have to travel long distances for appearing in various exams.

These multiple recruitment examinations are a burden on the candidates, as also on the respective recruitment agencies, involving avoidable/repetitive expenditure, law and order/security related issues and venue related problems.

On an average, 2.5 crore to 3 crore candidates appear in each of these examinations. A CET would enable these candidates to appear once and apply to any or all of these recruitment agencies for the higher level of examination. This would indeed be a boon to all the candidates.

It is envisioned that the NRA would be a specialist body bringing state-of-the-art technology and best practices to the field of central government recruitment.

NRA to Conduct CET: Union cabinet has approved the establishment of a National Recruitment Agency (NRA), a multi agency body to conduct preliminary exams for jobs notified by 20 government organisations.

Initially it will conduct exams for only three organisations: the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) and the Institute of Banking Service Personnel (IBPS).

The exam, which will be known as the Common Eligibility Test (CET) will be computer based and will screen candidates for the higher level of exams. Candidates who qualify the CET will apply to the respective recruitment agency for the higher exam.

Highlights of NRA CET

Salient features

• Common Eligibility Test to replace multiple examinations for recruitment to Central Government Jobs
• NRA to conduct online CET twice in a year.
• A single exam will be held for IBPS, SSC and RRB initially. This will be the preliminary exam.
• Registration of applicants, generation of roll number/admit cards, display of marks, merit list, etc, will be done online.
• The CET will be based on multiple choice objective type question paper.
• Candidates who qualify this exam will apply to respective recruitment agencies for higher level of exam
• For the CET, examination centres will be allotted in every district. Special focus will be on creating examination infrastructure in the 117 aspirational districts
• Mock tests will be held for candidates from rural areas
• CET score of a candidate will be valid for three years from the date of declaration of result
• No restriction on number of attempts: There will be no restriction on the number of attempts as long as the candidate’s age is within the permissible age limit set for the job
• Relaxation in upper age limit to be given to candidates of SC/ ST/ OBC/ PwD, etc.
• The best of the valid scores will be considered as the current score of the candidate
• Separate CET will be held for graduate, higher secondary and class 10 level
• There will be a common syllabus for the CET
• Candidates would have the facility of registering on a common portal and give a choice of centres.
• There will be 24X7 helpline facility and a grievance reddressal portal
• NRA to ensure better access to rural, underprivileged candidates and women.
• NRA will facilitate employment generation.
• CET scores can be shared with central government, state government, union territories, public sector undertakings and private sector.

The CET would be available in a number of languages. This would greatly facilitate people from different parts of the country to take the exam and have an equal opportunity of being selected.

Every district of the country will have an examination centre, including the 117 aspirational districts. CET to be conducted at over 1,000 centres. Examination centres in every district of the country would greatly enhance access to the candidates located in far-flung areas.

Major relief to poor candidates: Presently, the candidates have to appear in multiple examinations conducted by multiple agencies. Apart from the examination fees, candidates have to incur additional expenses for travel, boarding, lodging and other such activities. A single examination would reduce the financial burden on candidates to a large extent.

Women candidates to benefit greatly: Women candidates especially from rural areas face constraints in appearing in multiple examinations as they have to arrange for transportation and places to stay when exam centres are far away. They sometimes also have to find suitable persons to accompany them to these centres that are located far away. The location of test centres in every district would greatly benefit candidates from rural areas in general and women candidates in particular.

Candidates would have the facility of registering on a common portal and give a choice of centres. Based on availability, they would be allotted centres. The ultimate aim is to reach a stage wherein candidates can schedule their own tests at centres of their choice.

NRA shall conduct a separate CET each for the three levels of graduate, higher secondary (12th pass) and the matriculate (10th pass) candidates for those non-technical posts to which recruitment is presently carried out by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) and by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).

Based on the screening done at the CET score level, final selection for recruitment shall be made through separate specialised Tiers (II, III etc) of examination which shall be conducted by the respective recruitment agencies. – The curriculum for this test would be common as would be the standard. This would greatly ease the burden of candidates who are at present required to prepare for each of the examinations separately as per different curriculum.

Setting up National Recruitment Agency to conduct Common Eligibility Test for selection to various central Government vacancies is a revolutionary reform. It will save youngsters from stress & save their time too. Kudos to you for this gift to youngsters.

The Government has sanctioned a sum of Rs 1,517.57 crore for the NRA. The expenditure will be undertaken over a period of three years. Apart from setting up the NRA, costs will be incurred for setting up examination infrastructure in the 117 aspirational districts. Source: PIB India & Narendra Modi

The NRA will conduct exams on the behalf of the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) and the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRB). In the long run, it will conduct exams on behalf of 20 government organisations

The NRA will conduct a common eligibility test to screen and shortlist candidates for subsequent selection tests. In other words, the agency will replace the first level test which are conducted by the SSC, RRBs and the IBPS.

The test will be held at three levels– graduate, higher secondary and secondary. The test will be held in online mode and the government has said it will create exam infrastructure in 117 aspirational districts which would provide immense benefit to candidates from remote areas as they can appear for the exam at a place close to where they live.

This will reduce appearing for multiple tests. Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh had said on an average 2.5-3 crore candidates appear in each of these examinations, but a common eligibility test would enable these candidates to appear once and apply to any or all of these recruitment agencies for the higher level of examination.

The common eligibility test will be held twice a year and the best of the scores will be considered. There will be no limit on the number of attempts in the test. However, there will be restriction in the upper age limit of the post for which a candidate will appear for the test.

The scores obtained by the candidate will be valid for three years, the government has said. The test will be held in 12 languages, besides Hindi and English. Tests will be conducted in 12 languages in due course and efforts will be made to include all the languages mentioned in the eighth schedule of the Constitution, according to a statement issued by the Personnel Ministry.

The marks obtained in the test conducted by the National Recruitment Agency (NRA) can also be used by the states and union territories, the government has said. Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh government has already announced to consider common eligibility test score

In September, the government had informed the Lok Sabha that the agency is likely to start functioning from September, 2021.